MEDFORD, Mass., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Scion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that Valentin Gribkoff, Ph.D., has joined the Company as Vice President of Biology. Dr. Gribkoff comes to Scion after a 17-year career in ion channel drug discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, most recently as Senior Principal Scientist in the Neuroscience Drug Discovery Department at the BMS Pharmaceutical Research Institute. At Scion, he will be responsible for all of Scion's ion channel biology including molecular and cellular biology together with electrophysiology and assay development for voltage- and ligand- gated ion channel targets.

"Valentin is a key addition to our senior management team," commented Pravin Chaturvedi, Ph.D., President and CEO of Scion. "Valentin brings a wealth of experience in drug discovery, ion channel biology and electrophysiology-based assays that will have a major impact on our ability to discover new subtype selective ion channel modulators. I look forward to working with him as we move toward the clinic with our first-in-class drug development candidates for neurological and cardiovascular disorders."

At BMS, Dr. Gribkoff also served as co-chair of the company's Cognition Enhancement Discovery and Stroke Discovery Working Groups. The programs that Dr. Gribkoff co-chaired culminated in the identification of preclinical lead candidates for further clinical development. Dr. Gribkoff is also an adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University School of Medicine. He has co-authored over 70 publications in peer reviewed journals, has 16 book and/or symposia chapters and has many patents in the ion channel, circadian rhythm and other neuroscience areas.

Dr. Gribkoff received his Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology/Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside. He completed his NIH post- doctoral fellowship in the Department of Physiology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Gribkoff received his Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine.

Scion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discovers and develops small molecule drugs that selectively regulate ion channels, a well-established class of pharmaceutical targets with potential application for a wide range of major diseases. Scion applies an innovative ion channel drug discovery strategy that integrates functional biology and medicinal chemistry, and is enabled by its proprietary high-throughput electrophysiology assay (HTEP(TM)).

This approach allows the Company to evaluate ion channel subtype target function and effects of molecules on ion channels at the earliest stages of the drug discovery process. Scion is initially utilizing this approach to discover drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular and CNS disorders, with focus on atrial fibrillation and pain, respectively. Currently, the Company holds over 70 issued U.S. patents as well as foreign counterparts in many other countries.